Complete well screen



Feb. 15, 1944. A. A. -JENS 2,341,733

COMPLETE WELL SCREEN Original Filed 00'0- 12, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 7 FIG. I.

Feb. 15,1944. 2 A. A. JENS COMPLETE WELL SCREEN Original Filed Oct. 12, 1940 2 Sheets-She'et 2 FIG. 6.

I 27\, FIG. 7.-

ALBERT A. JENS' FIG.

Patented Feb. 15, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COMPLETIffii]: SCREEN Albert A. Jens, St. Paul, Minn., assigno'r to Ed ward E. Johnson, Incorporated, Sh-Paul, Original application October 12, 1940., Serial No.

360,968. Divided and this application September 18, 1942, Serial No. 459,065

3 Claims. (01.166-5) I My invention relates to complete well screens including the screening member formed .with a screening surface and longitudinal supporting members having ends extending beyond said screening surface and end fittings receiving and welded directly to said extended ends.

It is well known in the manufacture of well screens to support a series of rods so that their outer limits will outline a cylinder and to wind in a helix upon said cylinder rods a wrapping wire spaced so as to provide drainage slots and to integrate said wrapping wire with the rods at every crossing point thereof by welding, and in other ways,such for example, as by slotting the supporting rods transversely and inserting the helically wound wire in the transverse slots and deforming the metal so as to cause it to grip the helical wire in the transverse slots. When the winding operation is terminated there will be left a series of rod ends extending beyond the finally formed screen surface. It is, of course, necessary to secure to the ends of these screens, fittings which ordinarily embody male and female threaded portions, whereby sections of the well screen may be united together or united to pipe sections with which the well screen is adapted to coact.

It is a principal object of my invention to provide a. complete well screen including attached fittings of a special construction such that the rod ends are so positioned in relation to the body of the fitting that the rod ends may in elfect be sunk into and welded to the fitting or be welded to parts immovably bound to the fitting.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a complete Well screen wherein there are supporting rods, a screening surface formed thereon, and extended ends of said rods entering longitudinal openings in the fittings in conjunction with a helical groove which extends through said openings to contact the extended ends and which is welded to each thereof at each of its crossing points.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a complete well screen wherein the screen ing surface includes a multiplicity of longitudinal supporting elements each extended at each end beyond and independent of the screening member in combination with end fittings of the same diameter united with the extended ends by receiving said ends in a. multiplicity of longitudinal holes, anduniting them with the fittings by means of a helical wire laid in a groove contacting said ends and welded thereto at every crossing point.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 360,968, filed October 12, 1940 now Patent 2,312,415, dated March 2, 1943.

The full objects and advantages of my invention are in general pointed out in the detailed specification hereinafter presented, and I have particularly pointed out and claimed the novel through the end fitting when the extended rod ends have been applied thereto.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the complete well screen with the fitting attached and with some parts broken away and in section.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary part sectional view of one end of an end fitting.

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on line Ii-'6 of Fig. 5, on an enlarged scale.

Fig. '7 is a correspondingly enlarged sectional view taken on line 1-1 of Fig. '5.

'Fig. 8' is a longitudinal sectional View taken through the end of the complete w'ell screen and of the fitti'ng attached thereto along the center of one of the extended ends of the supporting rods of the well screen.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional part perspective view of the locking Wire used in uniting the rod .ends to the fitting.

As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 8, a screen mem-. her is formed by holding a multiplicity of longitudinal rods 10 in a cylindrical plane and winding helically upon said rods a wire .H which as indicated at [2 in Fig. 8 is Welded to the longi tudinal members H1 at every crossing point thereof. The wire I! has a flat top 13 and converging side walls l4 and I5. When the well screen is finished the fiat tops l3 of the wires ll fall in a cylindrical plane, the helical coils of the wire H and rods I0 being sunk and merged together to bring about this result. The coils of the wire II are spaced apart suitable distances as indicated .at [B and this distance may be varied to a greater or less degree according to the character of work for which the well screen is to be used.

I It is, of course, necessary to provide suitable end fittings to the screen sectionfor thepurpose; of securing two or more of saidsections together and for securing co-operating pipe members to the ends of said sections. For this purpose the rods ID will beleft with end extensions I! and L8 as clearly showninFig. 2, and I have combined with these ends a novel and exceedingly useful form of end fitting. This comprises a cylindrical member l-9 formedwith a thickened portion 20 and a threaded portion 2-l ofan outside diameter substantially less than that of the thickened portion 20. The difference in diameter is indicated at 22 and will have an outside diameter and circumference exactly that of the helical coils of wire ll, so that when the fittings are applied to the end extensions l1 and Hi the outer circumferential extent of the expanded portion 20 of the'fittiiig will fall in the same cy1in-.

drical plane as do the tops of the helical coils of wire II.

The thickened portion 20 of the fitting I9 151 formed with a series of longitudinal holes 23 of a size suflicient to just receive the'extended ends" I! or l8 of longitudinal supporting members l0. These longitudinal members, are in practice usually roughly triangular in cross-section with a rounded inner broadened base-as indicated at 24 in Fig. 3. It follows that when the extended ends H or [8 are inserted in the holes 23 the. rounded base will engage the bottom of the hole as indicated at '25 of Fig. 8"and the narrowed edge will engage the top of the hole as indicated The thickened portion 20 of the fitting I9 has formed therein a'deep helical slot 21 producing a continuous helical threaded roove 28 as shown in Fig. 7. The depth of the slot 2'! is such as to enter a substantial distance into the holes 23 as clearly shown at 29 in Figs. and 6. In practice the rod ends H and [8 will be assembled in the holes 23 before the helical slot 27 is cut so'that the bottom portions of said slot will form transverse notches in the rod ends ll and I8 of the same'depth and shape as indicated at 29 Figs.

of the enlarged part2!) of the fitting l9, or as clearly indicated in Fig. 8, in the cylindrical plane of the tops l3 of the helical coils of wire ll forming the strainer surface of the well screen. When the locking wire 30 has sobeen laid in position, it is caused to be welded to the rod end extensions I! or l8 at every crossing point thereof as indicated at 33 in Fig. 8. In this manner, as clearly appears, the fitting [9 has its body portion in the raised part 20 integrally united with and'locked upon all of "the rod end extensions I! or l8 with the result that the fitting in effect becomes an integral part of the fabricated well screen made up of longitudinal supporting ele-' ments l0 and helically wound screen forming wire II.

Fig. 4 illustrateshow-the fitting may have its threaded portion 2| united with a pipe member 34. This shows the well screen section united with the end-of a pipe member 34 with which it co-operates and illustrates very well how the outside diameters of the fitting, the pipe member and the well screen itself fall in a common cylindrical plane. It will be obvious that by using a short section of pipe 34' internally threaded at opposite ends, sections ofthe well screen itself may be joined together. 4

The advantages of my invention are fairly obvious from the description above-given in the specification. Aprincipal advantage is, of course, that the fitting becomes-in effect an integral part of the well screen itself.

A further great advantage is that the fitting is so integrated with the longitudinal supports that they thus are adapted to sustain the vertical strains encountered in setting the well screen, no matter how severe.

A further great advantage lies in the fact that the fittings and the pipe section with which it "is assembled, or another well screen section if that is used, have their outer walls all in the same "cylindrical plane with no projections of any sort 5 extending outside of that plane, which enables the well screen and the pipe to which it is attached to be put down either inside of a well "casing or in a majority of cases directly through the hole drilled with the least possible frictional resistance. I claim: 1. A complete well screen comprising a multiplicity of longitudinal supporting elementshav ing a screening member formed thereon and at-' tached thereto, said elements being extended at each end beyond said screening'member, end

fittings formed with longitudinal holes extending through the ends thereof and being applied over said extended ends, a helical groove formed on the end fittings and extending into the spaces outlined by all said holes at every crossing'point thereof, said grooves having inwardly converging side walls, and a wire laid in said helical groove and contacting said side walls and the extended extended surface of the screening member, a multiplicity of longitudinal holes in said end fittings in which the extended ends are positioned, a helical'gr'oove on the outside of one end of the end fittings extending into the spaces outlined by said holes at every crossing point thereof, and a wire laid in said helical groove so as to contact the walls thereof and the reduced edge portion of the extended ends and welded 'to said reduced portions at every crossing point thereof.

3. A complete well screen comprising a multiplicity of longitudinal supporting elements having a screening member rigidly united therewith and supported thereby, said elements being extended at each end beyond and independent of said screening member, end fittings of identical circumferential area to that of the said screening member and having a surface lying in the same cylindrical plane as the surface of the screening member, a multiplicity of longitudinal holes in said end fittings in which the extended ends are positioned, a deep helical groove on the end fittings extending across said holes and having converging side walls, and a wire of the same cross-sectional size and shape as that of the groove laid in and sunk into said helical groove and welded to said extended ends at every crossing point, whereby when the welding is completed the surface of the fittings falls in the same cylindrical plane as that of the screening surface.

ALBERT A. JENSr 

